"I followed that preacher man down to the river," Carrie Underwood sang on her deeply spiritual 2014 chart-topper, "Something in the Water."

"And now I'm changed/ And now I'm stronger/ There must've been something in the water."

According to songwriter Chris DeStefano — who co-wrote the song with Underwood and Brett James — the second the country star heard the "track" he'd put together, she knew exactly what she wanted to say. The song's powerful incorporation of "Amazing Grace" was also Underwood's idea.

DeStefano told the story behind the song to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Bart Herbison: I can imagine the scene the day (the song was written). … Brett comes up on his Harley, I'm guessing, with wind flowing. And Carrie Underwood comes to the front door in some flowing gown like Marlene Dietrich and goes, "Gentlemen, let's write."

Chris DeStefano: Yeah, that would be maybe the Hallmark version. I don't know. … I was up probably around 5 or 5:30 in the morning and got to my studio around 6. I started working on ideas and prep … a lot of what they call “tracks,” the music bed without the song. And yeah, I drove out to Carrie's cabin and I pulled up in my dad's 2010 Ford Taurus that I bought from him.

BH: Well take us to the song, how did it happen in the room that day?

CD: I remember apologizing — you know, it's good to always apologize for ideas before you put them out there, so if your co-writers don't like it, you're kind of immediately forgiven. I played this piece of music for them. I had a few things prepared, but I was really hoping that they were going to like this one in particular. …

They both immediately reacted to this, and Carrie, through the first listen even, she started singing some of those melodies that are the final (song). She was just immediately in it.

CD: She did. She had been wanting to write that song and with that twist, of making ‘Something in the Water’ about the baptismal water, and then make it very, very spiritual. God was in the room. God definitely had a huge hand in it that day.

BH: Carrie is an actress that plays out the emotion of every song … but Carrie Underwood, the songwriter. I mean, she has grown into a legitimate, amazing, great songwriter.

CD: Carrie has got so many, so many talents in such an extreme level. She's almost like a chameleon where she can bring in different styles but yet it's all her, it all fits within whatever country genre she's doing, it just sounds like her.

BH: So, it happens quickly that day?

CD: Yeah, it was it was a quick write. We wrote the whole song in, it couldn't have been (more than) a couple hours.

BH: The refrain of "Amazing Grace" at the end of (the song), discuss that.

CD: It was right at the end and we were listening back (to the recording). And all of a sudden, I just hear Carrie singing that in the background. It was a special moment. I think we all cried that day.

Yeah, it just was so much bigger than us. ... I think Carrie and Brett would agree that that was just, there were absolute forces at work that day that just, you know, I felt very, very blessed to be in the room that day.

BH: I've heard that song so many times. I’ve probably heard you play it 50, but every, every single time, no matter. Maybe it's the good Lord summoning it, maybe I need it, but man, I'm just washed with that song. You say you still cry, right?

CD: Yeah. I'm not lying when I say it took me three months of playing it pretty regularly to be able to get through it without breaking up or losing it at some point. … I've been through a lot of ups and downs. (I've) been through different parts of my life where if God was not a part of my life, I would not have gotten through things.

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